The invention relates to a motor vehicle having a hybrid drive with more than one drive unit, as well as to a method for operating a motor vehicle having a hybrid drive.
Operation of motor vehicles that exceed predefined limit values of fine dust emissions have to comply already today in some cities and towns with regulations which put restrictions on the operation of these motor vehicles and approve operation only under certain conditions. In order to be able to check compliance with the regulations, motor vehicles operated in these cities and towns must carry a so-called fine dust sticker on the windshield in a very visible way for monitoring authorities or their executive bodies to show in which of four pollutant groups the motor vehicle is classified.
As the reduction of emissions reaches its limits not only in regard to fine dusts but also to air pollutants such as NOx, CO or unburned hydrocarbons as well as to substances that are harmful to the climate, such as CO2, emanating from internal combustion engines of motor vehicles, regulations can be expected in the future that are not only directed to fine dusts but increasingly also for other pollutants or substances that are harmful to the climate, thus leading to restrictions in the operation of motor vehicles with emissions of substances above a limit value in zoned areas, for example, within city limits, towns or entire regions. The same may also be basically true for noise emissions.
While motor vehicles with a single drive unit enable an unambiguous classification to a predefined pollutant class or pollutant group, this is not the case when motor vehicles of the afore-stated type with a hybrid drive are involved because both drive units of these motor vehicles typically exhibit totally different pollutant emissions. For that reason, such motor vehicles do not allow control of compliance of regulations for limiting the emission of pollutants and/or substances that are harmful to the climate by using a sticker visible from the outside on the windshield.
As the development of motor vehicles aims on one hand to equip motor vehicles increasingly with a hybrid drive and as there are increasingly more development projects for motor vehicles which involve examination and testing of most different combinations of drive units, i.e. not only the currently typical combination of an internal combustion engine with one or two electric motors, determination as to whether a motor vehicle is authorized or not authorized to operate in a zone with regulated emission of pollutants will in all likelihood become more difficult in the future.